You Keep Me Safe And Warm
by vratsababe
Summary: Vegeta reflects on his life with Bulma and his family. My very first one-shot, but it's worth reading. Rated for big words and stuff that would confuse preteens.


_You Keep Me Safe And Warm_

_This will be one of the first one-shots I've written in a long time. Anywhoo... yeah, enjoy because you may not be getting any more for a while, lol._

Vegeta's POV

You might say you give me credit. I've reached the point in my wife's life that some men would just turn around and sprint as horribly fast as possible, and you also may say that I can run pretty fast. I've survived her horrible mood swings in her late forties, brought to you courtesy of menopause. With Bulma, those were intense because she already changed moods with a hurricane-like consistency. I've survived the childbirths, twice. I daresay that my hand is still healing from severe damage to the blood vessels. I also lived through the dating scene, and not mine... the scene of my two children. Believe me, that was a walk to remember.

All this may seem good and jolly, okay, maybe not good and jolly, but tolerable. Now I am seventy-five and about a hundred and twenty five to go. I'm still fit, fighting, and could kick your, ahem, _behind_, any day of the week. As for Bulma, she's still there. She's old for a human and has changed a lot, emotionally, mentally and physically.

I was raised in deep space, to be general and unspecific, and Bulma was raised right here in West City. Now, we're both here, running Capsule Corporation all by ourselves. I will give some credit to Trunks and his wife, Marris. I took up chemistry about twenty years ago and work with engineering. Bulma is the manager around here. She inspects blueprints and tinkers around with things occasionally. She can't do as much as she used to in the lab. That's Trunks's job now, he's so much like his mother. Bura's too busy in Paris working at a cosmetics line that her and her best friend started. It's called Sai Dontae, using Bura's heritage (because she didn't want to use her name, go figure.) and her friend's maiden name. She's doing great, but Bulma's really upset about the grandkids being so far away.

Our family has grown quite a bit in the recent years. Trunks has six kids, four boys and two girls, a set of quadruplets and two solo flyers. I remember him fainting when Marris brought home the third ultrasound with the four little pictures in it. I couldn't help but laugh when my son, in all his machoness started weeping like a baby out of joy and probably worry at the time. As for Bura, She has two beautiful angel girls. They look like their father somewhat, and Bulma insists the younger looks like me.

Bulma is such a beautiful woman. Even though she says her looks have gone out the window and melted in the rain, she's still the beautiful maiden I saw so many years ago on Namek. She was so beautiful to me then, and she's still that beautiful, if not more. She stresses all the time about trying to fix the wrinkles and other things that are a little droopier than they were twenty-some odd years ago, but I say it's all wisdom that's changed her, wisdom and then experience. I told her that about a year ago and she asked if I was stupid and inexperienced for not changing much at all. I just smiled, stumped for a comeback. Maybe I haven't had experience or wisdom of the same sort. Sure, I fought a lot several years ago, but I've learned a lot from living with my family.

On the same topic of family, I remember when I was in my early twenties and Nappa and I were carrying on one of our 'can you imagine' conversations. He asked me if I could imagine ever having a family. I remember laughing at him and asking if he could imagine having hair. It seemed so funny then, and it seems even funnier now because of my circumstance. I am the prince of an extinct race. All that actually remains is me, half, quarter and eighth Saiyans disregarded. Kakarott is dead, and has been for a long while now. He died at a time when his family needed him most and that's unfortunate. I feel bad for his wife, even though I think she's a harpy, because she loved him so passionately, and he may have loved her back but he was never there for her. His sons have missed out on having an involved father. So, I wasn't the most active in my children's lives, but I am making up for it. Trunks lives here with his family, and it is very hectic all the time, and I see the way he is with his children, the way he wishes I had been. He loves those kids more than anything; you can see it in his eyes every time he's around them.

I've also noticed something when Bulma's around those kids. It's like she's not 'old' like she thinks she is normally. Her favorite thing to do is to take Leslie, the oldest, shopping for her high school dances. I went with the girls once and it's like right after Bulma and I got married, except they're not maternity shopping. She goes from rack to rack, pulling everything in a size four that costs more than sixty bucks and putting them over her arm. She walks out of there with several shopping bags and a bright smile like it was her shopping for prom with one of her best girlfriends. Janet, the younger of the girls, is in junior high and the whole mad dash and makeup thing hasn't set in. She still goes shopping with Bulma for cute, but not too girly, things like t-shirts with 'princess' written in block writing across the front. In Janet, I see the more rebellious side of Bulma. She got into a fight at school once and Bulma actually asked if she won. I asked Trunks the same thing when he was just about that same age and Bulma gave me a good shouting match on that. I backed down on that after about an hour or so. It's just no use fighting with a woman during her 'time of the month.'

As I ride farther along on my train of thought, I just can't help but noticing that it's not Bulma that's dependent on me to keep her safe and warm at night, but it's her that keeps the air in my lungs. If I had never met her, I certainly would not be sitting here, writing this down. Ever since I met her, my life has felt complete. We've had our ups, our downs and we've even made it past the temptation of divorce. It's funny how you can love someone so much but feel a fear of getting to hate them. When we were on that shaky rope bridge, I know that I didn't not love her, I was just angry and upset. One minute, we were shouting obscenities at each other and the next moment, she was crying in my arms and I was apologizing over and over. We really learned that night the extent of our love.

And so, without boring anyone with the rest of my life story, much of which is splattered with blood and clothed in a cloak of darkness, I will get to my point. My point is that sometimes, happiness can be right underneath our faces and we can be too arrogant to realize it. That's the way I used to be, too proud to degrade myself in any way and in front of anyone. That is not the way that we should live. False pride, false hope, false arrogance; these can all lead to a cruel fate IF we do not turn around and see the person standing right beside you that is trying so desperately to help. Find a reason, find a solution, and find that person to keep you safe and warm.

_Oooohkay! So, my very first Dragonball Z one shot. How did it turn out? Good, bad, too unexplainable for words? Let me know if I should write another, switch genres... anything._

_Chibi Vegeta Face_

_Now that's some good cheese!_


End file.
